The "2nd Annual WPI-UMASS-UPENN EDM Data Mining Challenge" required contestants to predict efficient testtaking based on log data. In this paper, we describe our theory-driven and psychometric modeling approach. For feature engineering, we employed the Log-Normal Response Time Model for estimating latent person speed, and the Generalized…

The "'Streptomyces' genetics and secondary metabolism" laboratory course gives an introduction to the versatile soil dwelling Gram-positive bacteria "Streptomyces" and their secondary metabolism. The course combines genetic modification of "Streptomyces"; growing of the strain and protoplast preparation, plasmid…

We explored how learners' "subjective ratings" of open educational resources (OERs) in terms of how much they find them "helpful" can predict the actual "learning gains" associated with those resources as measured with pre- and post-tests. To this end, we developed a probabilistic model called GRAM (Gaussian Rating…

Vocabulary is a fundamental component of language usage, and study into its interactions with other aspects of language competence is an essential topic of language teaching. There are strong relationships between vocabulary and language competency measurements. Learners with larger vocabularies are better at a variety of language abilities than…

Recent studies have documented frequency effects for word n-grams, independently of word unigram frequency. Further studies have revealed constructional prototype effects, both at the word level as well as for phrases. The present speech production study investigates the time course of these effects for the production of prepositional phrases in…

Purpose: To develop models to estimate aerobic fitness (VO[subscript 2]max) from PACER performance in 10- to 18-year-old youth, with and without body mass index (BMI) as a predictor. Method: Youth (N = 280) completed the PACER and a maximal treadmill test to assess VO[subscript 2]max. Validation and cross-validation groups were randomly formed to…

Graduating approximately 150,000 engineering and engineering technology students per year, the engineering education system seeks to teach students to solve problems via analysis and design. Unfortunately, many curricula emphasize analysis at the expense of design, often relegating design activities to cornerstone and capstone design courses and…

The use of approximations in solving problems in sciences can be vital for students. Order of magnitude estimation also helps with physical understanding of the quantities involved in a calculation. For example, in the first exam in a first-year class in chemistry the student must find the mass in grams of an atom; a couple of students will…

Because of the continued increase in obesity rates and decrease in children's physical activity and fitness levels, this study investigated the relationship between habitual physical activity and perceived competence, enjoyment of physical activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness among upper elementary school children. This study used the…

Although gender-based violence prevention programs at institutions of higher education (IHEs) are mandated by federal legislation, research focusing on the prevalence or content of programming is limited. The present exploratory research examines campus websites for a nationally representative sample of Title IX eligible IHEs that offer at least a…

The aim of this study was to examine prospective science teachers' knowledge of and difficulties with the metric unit conversion. The participants of the study were 73 prospective science teachers. In this qualitative study, a measurement test with 14 questions was administered to the participants to examine their knowledge of and difficulties…

The described exercise uses competition and the promise of a sugar-high to motivate students to appreciate the importance load management in an intermodal setting. Using material available from a local supermarket or general merchandise store, student teams load their "container" for two customers. One customer requires palletized square…

Objective: Examine the influence of altering the size of snack food (ie, small vs large cookies) on short-term energy intake. Methods: First- and sixth-graders (n = 77) participated in a between-subjects experimental design. All participants were offered the same gram weight of cookies during an afternoon tea at their school. For half of the…

Purpose: Developing physically literate individuals is a major goal of school physical education. To date, no research in the United States has examined physical literacy by simultaneously measuring multiple dimensions among young children. The purpose of this study was to examine students' current status of physical literacy in third grade.…

A distinctive feature of game-based learning environments is their capacity for enabling stealth assessment. Stealth assessment analyzes a stream of fine-grained student interaction data from a game-based learning environment to dynamically draw inferences about students' competencies through evidence-centered design. In evidence-centered design,…